College Supplement

One part of attending the semester school High Mountain Institute included a visit to Colorado College, a short seminar there, and a tour of campus. I had previously not heard of this school except by name, and was curious to learn about what set it apart from the many other colleges out there. The first thing I noticed as I stepped off the bus was how nice the weather was. I ditched my many layers that were essential to my warmth at snowy HMI for shorts and a t shirt. The sun was shining bright in the sky and I learned that this was just one of the average 300 days of sunshine a year, a nice change from 135 days a year of rain in my hometown.

When I first heard of the block plan, I was skeptical. It had never occurred to me that an entire school could have students learning only one subject at a time. What about teachers? What about making friends outside your one class? Am I going to have to spend five hours a day sitting in the same classroom? As the informational seminar on the Block Plan progressed, these fears were replaced with excitements about the new possibilities a Block Plan could offer. You could develop much more of a bond with your teachers because they are also only teaching that one class. There are many opportunities to make close friend groups because there are eight blocks a year, and friendships are able to grow within each block through the time spent with your classmates. You will never have to sit in one classroom for five hours, because the block plan makes it much easier to move the classroom. As teachers don’t have to worry about interfering with the schedule’s of other classes, they are given much more freedom with the curriculum. Why learn about Colorado’s historical sites when you can take the day to visit them? The block plan allows students to truly delve deep within one subject, rather than glance the surface of many.

At my home school, my night looks like a physics test, a math exam, and a Latin quiz. To study, I scan and memorize what I’ll need to know, ready to regurgitate it onto the tests and then forget about it, moving on to the next chapter. But I don’t enjoy doing this. I hate that as soon as I get into a topic, eager to learn more about it, I have to put it on hold for the next class as one can only fit so much into a fifty minute period. But I am hopeful, and even here I look forward to the nights where my only assignment is a presentation for one class, so I can ignore the others and put all my focus and energy into one. And on those nights, I produce the work which I’m most proud of.